As teams prepare for the NFL Draft next month, the good news for Eagles fans is that head coach Chip Kelly has a leg up on nearly every other head coach in the league.

How?

Since he has only been out of the college game for a year, Kelly had the opportunity to recruit a good chunk of the players in this year's draft. Only Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone and Houston Texans coach Bill O'Brien can say the same.

The college recruiting process allows head coaches like Kelly to really get to know a prospect. In many ways, more than the NFL Draft process does. Coaches visit prospects at their school, meets the parents, and often times even go into their homes. Imagine the pandaemonium if it came out that Kelly and Johnny Manziel spent some time in Kelly's office last week.

Well, while recruiting Manziel, Kelly did spend some one-on-one time with the quarterback in his office at Oregon -- giving him a heads up on coaches who are just now getting to interact with the Heisman winner.

Kelly's familiarity with Manizel probably won't matter this year, as the quarterback will likely be long gone by the time the Eagles go on the clock at No. 22.

Where it helps Kelly and the Eagles is with prospects they might draft. Kelly already has intimate knowledge of prospects like linebacker Anthony Barr of UCLA and wide receiver Marqise Lee of USC when he tried to recruit them. With the Eagles clearly putting a big emphasis on what kind of players they have on their team -- wide receiver DeSean Jackson being the prime example -- Kelly having already recruited these players and handed them his stamp of approval is huge.

Note that a lot of the prospects come in the later rounds -- where knowing a player is much more valuable then it is in the earlier rounds.

Of the players on the above list, the Eagles have already shown an interest in a number of them, including Manziel, Barr, Lee, Powell and Hart. Kelly has recruited them all once before, and lost out on almost all of them.

Come draft time, Kelly will get a second-shot at a number of players he tried to get before -- but this time, he will be the one making the final decision.